The Poetical Works of Leigh Hunt/A Heaven Upon Earth

by James Henry Leigh Hunt

A HEAVEN UPON EARTH

FRAGMENT OF AN UNPUBLISHED PLAY. A HUSBAND IS CONVERSING WITH HIS WIFE.

For there are two heavens, sweet,Both made of love,—one, inconceivableEv'n by the other, so divine it is;The other, far on this side of the stars,By men call'd home, when some blest pair are metAs we are now; sometimes in happy talk,Sometimes in silence (also a sort of talk,Where friends are match'd) each at its gentle taskOf book, or household need, or meditation,By summer-moon, or curtain'd fire in frost;And by degrees there come,—not always come,Yet mostly,—other, smaller inmates there,Cherubic-fac'd, yet growing like those two,Their pride and playmates, not without meek fear,Since God sometimes to his own cherubim'Takes those sweet cheeks of earth. And so 'twixt joy,And love, and tears, and whatsoever painMan fitly shares with man, these two grow old;And if indeed blest thoroughly, they dieIn the same spot, and nigh the same good hour,And setting suns look heavenly on their grave.—